B.C.’s brief commercial prawn season opened at noon on Friday when fishers set out out traps to catch the sweet-tasting, bright red shellfish with their distinctive white spots.
The first prawns are expected to show up in Vancouver Island seafood markets this afternoon.
How popular are they? “The phone calls started in about March,” Anne Best, who owns Oak Bay Seafood with husband Gregg, said on Friday.
She figures the short season helps drive demand.
The store sells live prawns and prawn tails. Prices weren’t immediately known Friday because they are based on a Vancouver rate, she said.
Boats are working south of Vancouver Island. Best is preparing for sales in the parking lot at 2024 Oak Bay Ave. to provide enough space for social distancing.
Salish Strait Seafood is selling prawns in a parking lot as well today. New equipment has been installed outdoors at Mary Winspear Centre, 2243 Beacon Ave., in Sidney.
The company, consisting of the Nanoose, Malahat, Sooke, Beecher Bay and Tsawout First Nations, anticipates opening about 1 p.m. and selling live prawns caught in its four boats.
About a week from now, the company will be selling prawns during late afternoons at the Snaw-naw-as market in Nanoose.
In B.C., most prawns are taken from the Strait of Georgia as part of a 245-licence commercial fishery. Prawn landings and processing take place mainly on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.
The fishery generally opens in May and closes by the end of June to protect egg-bearing females, although it was delayed last year due to the pandemic.
Historically, the commercial prawn and shrimp fishery has been one of the most valuable fisheries in the Pacific region, with a landed value of $36 million to $40 million in 2012-2014, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada report said.
It’s not without controversy, however. This year, the federal government announced it was banning “tubbing,” a common practice in which prawns are frozen at sea in saltwater-filled containers.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said it was going to disallow it because all catches must be easily available for inspection.
After an uproar from the prawn sector, the federal government backed down, saying it would allow tubbing this year while different packaging options are developed.
Then there was the question of when to open the fishery this season.
Some members of the sector were keen to set traps on Friday, while others urged delaying until May 26 because of the pandemic.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada and members of the prawn sector took part in online meetings to discuss the best opening date.
Supporters of the delayed opening pointed out that the province’s current safety restrictions, which run until May 25, include a ban on indoor dining, and restaurants are among buyers of fresh prawns.
Brent Edwards, Salish Strait Seafoods manager, was among those favouring a two-week delay in hopes of seeing more people vaccinated.
A later date would also have allowed it to better serve restaurants, which make up a large portion of their live sales.
Processor Cam Pirie attended online meetings where, he said, the consensus was that the opening date should be delayed, which he favoured.
He was disappointed and annoyed when Fisheries and Oceans Canada decided to open the fishery on Friday.
His family founded Walcan Seafood Ltd. on Quadra Island, where it is now one of the largest prawn-processing plants in B.C., sending product to markets such as Japan and Europe. When live prawns come in, workers meticulously pack them and they are frozen for shipping.
The first 10 to 14 days of the prawn fishery see about 50 per cent of the total catch hauled in, Pirie said. It’s a busy time. Boats unload from about 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and crews process the prawns until 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.
The plant processes about 24,000 pounds of prawns per day during the fishery, Pirie said.
cjwilson@timescolonist